How to access FTP between computers on WLAN?

WLAN consists of 2 laptops: 1 Mac, 1 Dell (WIn XP Pro) served by AirPort
(snow) AP. Mac has FTP mode where others can log in.

Is access between computers possible via the AP? Or must I enable the
"peer-to-peer" mode in the wireless configurations for each computer?

Thanks,
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DaveC

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I think we need pictures.

The WLAN generally means the port that is connected to the internet via
your ISP. It also generally means that the devices on the LAN side of
the router are using non-routing IP addresses.

In a home situation, the typical setup if

dialup Modem or
DSL modem or
Cable modem
to ISP and internet
|
|
WLAN Port
Home Router
maybe with
WiFi (802.11b/g) \/\/\/ WiFi laptop(s) or computer(s)
LAN Port(s) Optional Printer port -> printer
|
|___ Computer
|
|___ Computer
|
|___ Network capable printer

The only time the WLAN port is just another LAN port is if the router
has disabled DHCP and NAT services.

Now in this environment, then ftp can be done between computers at home,
just use the 10.0.1.* or 192.168.*.* type addresses that are assigned to
the home computers by the home router's DHCP service. The Mac OS TCP/IP
Control Panel, or the Mac OS X Network System Preferences will tell you
the IP address assigned to your Mac by the Router's DHCP service.

Classic Mac OS does not have an ftp server or ftp client, but they can
be obtained (http://MacOrchard.com would be good place to look for
these). Mac OS X ftp server is enabled via the Sharing System
Preferences, and there are command line ftp commands as part of Mac OS
X, and you can get GUI ftp clients for Mac OS X
(http://versiontracker.com/macosx is a good place to look for those).

Oh yea, most browsers can be FTP clients by using the syntax
ftp://server.mumble.com/path/to/file/to/download

If you are trying to do ftp from the Mac across the router to a system
on the internet, that should just work.

If you are trying to access your Mac on the LAN side of a home router
from outside your home, then you need to tell the router to forward the
ftp port(s) to your Mac. Your Macs DHCP assigned IP address will not be
directly visible via the internet. Use http://whatismyip.com to find
out the IP address assigned to your router by your ISP.

Now if you have some computers on the LAN side of a home router and some
computers on the WLAN side of a home router and the home router is still
performing routing services (it has not been turned into a bridge), then
you can not easily access non-routing home IP addresses (10.*.*.* or
192.168.*.* type addresses are non-routing).

Basically we need to know what your configuration looks like before we
can accurately answer your question.

Bob Harris

 

DSL "modem"---AirPort AP~~~~Mac PowerBook (Mac OS X)
|
~~~~Dell Laptop (Win XP Pro)

( - = cable, ~ = wireless )

No hardwired computers. Only wireless.

Want to access Mac's FTP server (set up in Sharing Preferences) from the PC
laptop.
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Please, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't
ask a question here if I hadn't done that already.

DaveC

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:WLAN consists of 2 laptops: 1 Mac, 1 Dell (WIn XP Pro) served by AirPort
snow) AP. Mac has FTP mode where others can log in.

:Is access between computers possible via the AP? Or must I enable the
:"peer-to-peer" mode in the wireless configurations for each computer?

You definitely don't need peer to peer for your purposes. You
probably don't want (in a technical sense) to use peer-to-peer
for what you are doing.

 

You should just be able to plug in the internal IP Address of the Mac
(10.10.?.?) into your PC FTP client.

Steve

 

By default the Airport base station uses 10.0.1.* addresses. It should
have assigned something like 10.0.1.2 and 10.0.1.3 to your Mac and Dell
laptops.

Look in the Mac OS X Network System Preferences, Airport, TCP/IP tab to
get the IP address assigned to the Mac.

On the PC side, use that address as the host name. You use your
username and password as the ftp login, or if you have more than one
account on your Mac, you can use one of them.

If you want anonymous ftp, then you need to do research on that. I went
though several books in the book store, and some google searches to
figure out how to do anonymous ftp. I ended up installing Pure-FTP, but
there are other options. "Mac OS X Unleashed" is one of the books I
remember looking at to figure out how to setup anonymous ftp. But in my
case it was for a work Mac that I wanted to setup to share files with
others inside of work. At home logging into a user account is more than
good enough.

You do know you can also enable Windows sharing in the Sharing System
Preferences, and setup an SMB server (Samba) for the Dell system to
connect to.

Bob Harris

 

I forgot to mention, Mac OS X can also connect to Shares you setup on
the Dell, you can browse the SMB servers on the network, or you can
explicitly connect to a server using

Finder -> Go menu -> Connect to Server...
smb://nn.nn.nn.nn/username

Bob Harris

 

Yes, that is what I wanted to know.

Thanks to all for the good advice.
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Please, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't
ask a question here if I hadn't done that already.

DaveC

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In my (very limited) experiments, I found that OS X's built-in FTP
server didn't work with passive FTP. I had to disable passive in the GUI
clients I tried (Transmit and Interarchy) before a directory listing
from the server Mac would show up on the client. Perhaps a glitch in the
OS X firewall?

The OP is probably be better off using the built-in AFP and SMB file
sharing, as they are more secure than OS X's built-in FTP server. This
has been discussed in recent threads in comp.sys.mac.system.

 

I've seen both WLAN and WAN for the port that is suppose to talk to the
internet. I think it was on a D-Link that I last saw WLAN, but that was
also my first Cable/DSL router, so that might explain whey it sticks.

Also the Original Post used the term WLAN, so with that reinforcement, I
just went happily on my way using the term WLAN in my replies.

But you are correct, Apple's Airport Admin Utility uses the notation
WAN. I'll try to do better next time

Bob Harris

 

Before the advent of wireless networking, I suppose they might have used
WLAN for this. The ISP port of a broadband router is normally connected
to an Ethernet segment that connects to the cable/DSL modem, so in that
sense it's a LAN, and they might have used the notation WLAN to mean
Wide-area LAN.

But he also mentioned AP, the abbreviation for Access Point, which is a
wireless term. That reinforces the idea that he's referring to a
Wireless LAN, which is what WLAN usually means these days.

 

If you say so, I'm sure they did. It does seem like a curious
contradiction of terms though - a wide-area local-area network.

Beverly

 

It's the LAN that connects to the WAN.

I'm not saying that they did -- I didn't use any of the early broadband
routers, and I'm just taking the previous poster's word that he saw this
label on the ISP port of some routers.

 

Not wide-area local-area network. Wireless local-area network.

 

Have you been reading the thread? There was an earlier poster who
claimed to have seen routers that had the ISP port labeled "WLAN",
rather than "WAN" as is now common. We're trying to figure out why they
did that. As I said in my previous post, I'm guessing it predated
wireless LANs and the current use of that abbreviation.

 

Thank you for following the thread.

Beverly

 

No, actually, "I" said it. Me! Me Me Me. But you can't trust my
memory, it goes back to punched papertape, and there may be a few stuck
chads

Bob Harris

 

The upgrade was to punched cards (80 and 96 column). There was some
flirting with 7-track 1/2 inch Magtape, but that didn't stick

Bob Harris